Journal of Neurophysiology

Yates, Bill J.

doi: 10.1152/jn.00230.2018pmid: 29641305

Swick, Casey; Andersen, Tiffany; Flores, Ana-Mercedes

doi: 10.1152/jn.00913.2017pmid: 29357456

Illuminating the pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie persistent postconcussive symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a growing area of study. Alhourani et al. (J Neurophysiol 116: 1840–1847, 2016) added to this emerging body of literature with their study examining default mode network disruption in mTBI using magnetoencephalography. The findings provided enhanced insight into the neural underpinnings of mTBI, which can be applied to future clinical and experimental research in this area.

Lozano-Soldevilla, Diego

doi: 10.1152/jn.00744.2017pmid: 29357455

There is compiling evidence suggesting that independent neuronal ensembles are coordinated in time and space through cross-frequency coupling (CFC). However, recent studies have convincingly demonstrated that nonsinusoidal oscillations produce serious biases in state of the art CFC metrics. Although most of studies treat nonsinusoidal waves as a nuisance or just ignore them, fortunately some scientists are starting to exploit their neurophysiological relevance opening new research vistas with critical implications.

Gur, Moshe

doi: 10.1152/jn.00622.2017pmid: 29357447

Although face perception is central to human behavior, the minimally perceived face size is not known. This study shows that humans can discriminate very small (~0.2°) faces. Furthermore, even when flashed for tens of milliseconds, ~0.25° faces can be discriminated. Such fine acuity should impact modeling of physiological mechanisms of face perception. The ability to discriminate flashed faces where there is almost no eye movement indicates that eye drift is not essential for visibility.

West, Timothy O.; Berthouze, Luc; Halliday, David M.; Litvak, Vladimir; Sharott, Andrew; Magill, Peter J.; Farmer, Simon F.

doi: 10.1152/jn.00629.2017pmid: 29357448

We present a novel analysis of electrophysiological recordings in the cortico-basal ganglia network with the aim of evaluating several hypotheses concerning the origins of abnormal brain rhythms associated with Parkinson’s disease. We present evidence for changes in the directed connections within the network following chronic dopamine depletion in rodents. These findings speak to the plausibility of a “short-circuiting” of the network that gives rise to the conditions from which pathological synchronization may arise.

Kiat, John E.; Dodd, Michael D.; Belli, Robert F.; Cheadle, Jacob E.

doi: 10.1152/jn.00722.2017pmid: 29364069

This study represents the first neuroimaging-based investigation of gradual change blindness, a visual phenomenon that has significant potential to shed light on the processes underlying visual detection and conscious perception. The use of gradual change materials is reflective of real-world visual phenomena and allows for cleaner isolation of signals associated with the neural registration of change relative to the use of abrupt change transients.

Johnston, Kevin D.; Barker, Kevin; Schaeffer, Lauren; Schaeffer, David; Everling, Stefan

doi: 10.1152/jn.00866.2017pmid: 29364068

The ability to carry out neuronal recordings in behaving primates has provided a wealth of information regarding the neural circuits underlying the control of eye movements. Such studies require restraint of the animal within a primate chair, head fixation, methods of acclimating the animals to this restraint, and the use of operant conditioning methods for training on oculomotor tasks. In contrast to the macaque model, relatively few studies have reported in detail methods for use in the common marmoset. In this report we detail custom-designed equipment and methods by which we have used to successfully train head-restrained marmosets to perform basic oculomotor tasks.

Bouffard, Jason; Salomoni, Sauro E.; Mercier, Catherine; Tucker, Kylie; Roy, Jean-Sébastien; van den Hoorn, Wolbert; Hodges, Paul W.; Bouyer, Laurent J.

doi: 10.1152/jn.00411.2017pmid: 29364067

This study shows that experimental muscle pain does not influence global motor performance during the acquisition or next-day retention phases of locomotor learning. This contrasts with previous results obtained with cutaneous pain, emphasizing the risk of directly extrapolating from one pain modality to another. Muscle pain affected motor strategies used when performing the task; however, it reduced the ability to use increased feedforward control to overcome the force field.

Fink, Ann E.; LeDoux, Joseph E.

doi: 10.1152/jn.00853.2017pmid: 29361666

β-Adrenergic receptors (β-ARs) in amygdala are important in processing emotionally salient stimuli. Most cellular recordings have examined juvenile animals, while behavioral data are often obtained from adults. We replicate findings showing that β-ARs enhance spiking of principal cells in the lateral amygdala of juveniles, but we fail to find this in adults. These findings have notable scientific and clinical implications regarding the noradrenergic modulation of threat processing, alterations of which underlie fear and anxiety disorders.

Bronk, Peter; Kuklin, Elena A.; Gorur-Shandilya, Srinivas; Liu, Chang; Wiggin, Timothy D.; Reed, Martha L.; Marder, Eve; Griffith, Leslie C.

doi: 10.1152/jn.00820.2017pmid: 29364071

Regulation of excitability is critical to tuning the nervous system for complex behaviors. We demonstrate in this article that the EAG family of voltage-gated K+ channels exhibit conserved gating by Ca2+/CaM. Disruption of this inhibition in Drosophila results in decreased evoked neurotransmitter release due to truncated Ca2+ influx in presynaptic terminals. In adults, disrupted Ca2+ dynamics cripples memory formation. These data demonstrate that the biophysical details of channels have important implications for cell function and behavior.